He took over a team hamstrung by injury in 2011. It wasn't just Peyton Manning, they had 13 other players go on IR last year. Joseph Addai, Dallas Clark and Anthony Gonzalez were hobbled by injuries, which on top of a 1st place schedule made a very mediocre Manning-less Colts team down right awful.

The Colts have beat 2 top 15 team this year. The Vikings and Packers, both games at home, both games by 3 points.They've lost 3 games against top 15 teams, they were out scored 129-62.

He's had seven 4th quarter comebacks, 5 of which came against teams rankings in the bottom 20 of pass defense.

I'm not taking anything away from Luck, but honestly how is he even in the conversation?

knownone wrote:He's had seven 4th quarter comebacks, 5 of which came against teams rankings in the bottom 20 of pass defense.

You answered your own question. The "willing your team to victory" is one of the most compelling things in sports. It has made legends of mediocre players for a lot of fan bases throughout the years. For most people the level of competition doesn't matter, because winning in the NFL is hard no matter who you play. No one talks about how crappy the AFC East has been during the Patriots dominance.

knownone wrote:He's had seven 4th quarter comebacks, 5 of which came against teams rankings in the bottom 20 of pass defense.

You answered your own question. The "willing your team to victory" is one of the most compelling things in sports. It has made legends of mediocre players for a lot of fan bases throughout the years. For most people the level of competition doesn't matter, because winning in the NFL is hard no matter who you play. No one talks about how crappy the AFC East has been during the Patriots dominance.

He tebowed his way to victory. That is, he sucked for 3 quarters then stopped sucking quite as hard and let the team win the game. If he didn't throw so many picks (ie if a better qb was playing) the team wouldn't be down to come back in the fourth quarter.

In my opinion, here is the main reason why Russell should be ROTY (let's throw all the stats out of the window for a mint)Andrew Luck has definitely done a lot for the Colts in taking a non playoff team and made them into a playoff team. But, Russell Wilson has taken a non playoff team and transformed it into a legitimate super bowl contender. I think most people who follow football would agree with that. The last 3 SB champions had to play at least 2 games on the road to reach the SB: NY Giants, Green Bay and Steelers (if I remember correctly). I believe RW should actually be in the conversation for MVP, as Seattle actually has a legitimate shot at the #2 seed ( If GB loses on Sunday we would have a better record than GB and would have beaten GB head to head, why should Rodgers beat Russell?).Yes, everybody wants to talk about Manning ... but, can someone look at Denver's strength of schedule for a minute? How about the Patriots strength of schedule? Even Atlanta strength of schedule is ridiculous, as all these teams played mostly against the AFC West and AFC South.I know, this is all wishful thinking because the media is wired for certain people ... but, oh well ...

joeseahawks wrote:I believe RW should actually be in the conversation for MVP, as Seattle actually has a legitimate shot at the #2 seed ( If GB loses on Sunday we would have a better record than GB and would have beaten GB head to head, why should Rodgers beat Russell?).Yes, everybody wants to talk about Manning ... but, can someone look at Denver's strength of schedule for a minute? How about the Patriots strength of schedule? Even Atlanta strength of schedule is ridiculous, as all these teams played mostly against the AFC West and AFC South.I know, this is all wishful thinking because the media is wired for certain people ... but, oh well ...

The thing is that MVP is exactly what the award says it is: Most Valuable Player. In my mind, the only player that gets removed from their roster and their team disappears from playoff contention and starts looking at drafting in the top ten is Adrian Peterson. If he doesn't deserve MVP this season then no running back in the history of football deserves it.

joeseahawks wrote:I believe RW should actually be in the conversation for MVP, as Seattle actually has a legitimate shot at the #2 seed ( If GB loses on Sunday we would have a better record than GB and would have beaten GB head to head, why should Rodgers beat Russell?).Yes, everybody wants to talk about Manning ... but, can someone look at Denver's strength of schedule for a minute? How about the Patriots strength of schedule? Even Atlanta strength of schedule is ridiculous, as all these teams played mostly against the AFC West and AFC South.I know, this is all wishful thinking because the media is wired for certain people ... but, oh well ...

The thing is that MVP is exactly what the award says it is: Most Valuable Player. In my mind, the only player that gets removed from their roster and their team disappears from playoff contention and starts looking at drafting in the top ten is Adrian Peterson. If he doesn't deserve MVP this season then no running back in the history of football deserves it.

joeseahawks wrote:I believe RW should actually be in the conversation for MVP, as Seattle actually has a legitimate shot at the #2 seed ( If GB loses on Sunday we would have a better record than GB and would have beaten GB head to head, why should Rodgers beat Russell?).Yes, everybody wants to talk about Manning ... but, can someone look at Denver's strength of schedule for a minute? How about the Patriots strength of schedule? Even Atlanta strength of schedule is ridiculous, as all these teams played mostly against the AFC West and AFC South.I know, this is all wishful thinking because the media is wired for certain people ... but, oh well ...

The thing is that MVP is exactly what the award says it is: Most Valuable Player. In my mind, the only player that gets removed from their roster and their team disappears from playoff contention and starts looking at drafting in the top ten is Adrian Peterson. If he doesn't deserve MVP this season then no running back in the history of football deserves it.

Exactly my perspective. Well said. AP should get it.

Yep.

Peyton Manning gets comeback player if AP gets MVP imo. If AP doesn't get one of the two it's a travesty.

Doug Baldwin took a hit to the head when he was younger and now can't remember how to drop a football. - SomersetHawk

What drives me insane is the whole "look at what he has done for a 2-win team" argument, for two reason.

1. The Colts aren't a "2 win team". Do they suck? Yeah, they suck this year, too. They have a negative point differential and are squeaking out tight games against bad teams. They also started a quarterback for a huge portion of the season last year who isn't even on an NFL roster right now. Curtis Painter is a considerably below average talent at the position, and it makes no sense to give Luck some sort of extra credit that is entirely without merit based on the organization he is now a part of having made piss poor personnel decisions before he got there.

2. What has he done for that team? He took last year's 28th ranked scoring offense and got them to 18th this year so far. That's pretty impressive, yeah, so he definitely has boosted the Colts up. I mean, Russell has taken the 23rd ranked scoring offense and got them to 8th this year so far, but somehow that's all being credited to the surrounding cast, most of which was here last year as well. Russell has been as big of a boost to his team relative to last season as any of the other rookie QBs, arguably more so.

If they give it to RG3 for his great numbers, especially the lack of interceptions, fine. I just can't see the argument for Luck being based on anything but fitting a narrative that was written the moment he was a lock for the #1 pick.

pinksheets wrote:What drives me insane is the whole "look at what he has done for a 2-win team" argument, for two reason.

1. The Colts aren't a "2 win team". Do they suck? Yeah, they suck this year, too. They have a negative point differential and are squeaking out tight games against bad teams. They also started a quarterback for a huge portion of the season last year who isn't even on an NFL roster right now. Curtis Painter is a considerably below average talent at the position, and it makes no sense to give Luck some sort of extra credit that is entirely without merit based on the organization he is now a part of having made piss poor personnel decisions before he got there.

2. What has he done for that team? He took last year's 28th ranked scoring offense and got them to 18th this year so far. That's pretty impressive, yeah, so he definitely has boosted the Colts up. I mean, Russell has taken the 23rd ranked scoring offense and got them to 8th this year so far, but somehow that's all being credited to the surrounding cast, most of which was here last year as well. Russell has been as big of a boost to his team relative to last season as any of the other rookie QBs, arguably more so.

If they give it to RG3 for his great numbers, especially the lack of interceptions, fine. I just can't see the argument for Luck being based on anything but fitting a narrative that was written the moment he was a lock for the #1 pick.

Whole post nailed it, and the last part especially. This has been 2 years in the making, ever since the Stanford Orange Bowl victory 2 years ago. The momentum is extremely hard to destroy - even though it should be obvious that Luck has nothing on Wilson or RG3 right now - and more importantly, people are trying to use the RotY to forecast how Luck is going to replace Manning in the hearts of Colts fans and become the eventual best QB in the league.

You have to be out of your mind to not pick Luck for ROY. He took a 2-14 team that was rebuilding and expected to have about 4 or 5 wins this year to the playoffs. Who cares who they played, you have to be pretty good to win 10 games. I would pick Andrew Luck as my MVP too because of what he did for the colts.

seahawks875 wrote:You have to be out of your mind to not pick Luck for ROY. He took a 2-14 team that was rebuilding and expected to have about 4 or 5 wins this year to the playoffs. Who cares who they played, you have to be pretty good to win 10 games. I would pick Andrew Luck as my MVP too because of what he did for the colts.

Yep. If you throw enough interceptions people will be impressed when you throw touchdowns.

Does anybody here really think the Colts didn't throw a game or two down the stretch last year to "suck for Luck"? Not necessarily saying it was a player, but perhaps a position coach, O-coordinator, D-coordinator, etc.....

Based on the talent the Colts acquired, I'm not convinced they just improved that much from the draft or from Luck. It feels like they under-performed a bit last year. Combine that with a somewhat tough schedule because they were perennial contenders with "My back hurts because I've carried the team on my back my whole career" Peyton Manning, and...yeah.

I'd probably vote for RG3 if I had a vote, but I have no qualms with taking Luck. Position for position, the Colts are one of the five worst rosters in the NFL. And they're going to the playoffs. There are not many QB's in the entire league that could have taken that team to the playoffs. There are at least 25 IMO that could have taken the Seahawks to the playoffs (no knock on Russell at all, just stating that our roster is relatively loaded.)

If the Colts had any chance to win a game, Luck had to go out and win it for them. And he did, several times.

Lastly, the eyeball test. I've probably watched 10 of the Colts games this year. Dude is balling out of his mind. I didn't think he had it in him. I didn't think he was going to be this good. Guess what, he is.

Because of the Seahawks roster, Russell would have needed a QB rating over 100 and won 12-13 games to have a legit shot. Sorry guys, but this isn't a conspiracy or east coast bias. The fact that any QB led that Colts roster to 10 wins is downright ridiculous, regardless of strength of schedule or number of interceptions.

After Luck's teams knocked the Texans out of the #1 seed today (at least until Denver and NE finish) he's probably going to get more ROY buoyancy, especially if Washington loses to the Cowboys. Wilson might be able to win it if he throws for 5-6 TDs with no INTs today.

22nd best rush offense (Seattle has the 3rd, and Washington has the 1st, and we all should know by now how much a strong running game helps a young quarterback).

26th best defense (meanwhile RW benefits from having the 4th ranked defense)

Meanwhile, he's thrown or a NFL rookie record 4,374 yards, has thrown an NFL rookie record 627 passes (showing that HE is the only pillar they lean on on offense, meanwhile the Seahawks get just as much from Lynch, and if not for the threat of Lynch, RW is probably only 75% as effective), most passing yards in a game for a rookie, and most 300 yard passing games in a season for a rookie. East Coast Bias? Or maybe you guys just aren't paying attention to the other two great rookie QBs (and who could blame you? You've GOT one of them. I'm sure Colts fans and Redskins fans are just as oblivious to RW). In my opinion, each of the three has done enough to earn the honor. I would be happy with a three-way tie, if it were possible.